Walking is the most common reason for visiting a national park, and rightly so. Other English sites up for membership include the South Downs and the New Forest, which is protected by its own ancient charter.ENOUGH OF THE LEGAL STUFF TAKE ME TO THE NEAREST MILLETTSYou've got the right idea. The Scottish Parliament intends to create its first national park in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. Grants encourage traditional practices that have shaped the landscape, such as shepherding and dry-stone walling.WHY ARE THERE NONE IN SCOTLAND?The Scottish legal system is different so national park legislation doesn't cover Scotland's many areas of natural beauty But this is due to change.

What the national park authorities do is protect the areas both from industry and from the 100 million people who tramp across the parks every year. They also have a duty to the social and economic well-being of people who live within the parks. In 1932 thousands of working people from the Midlands organised the Kinder Scout mass trespass in the Peak District, in which five men were arrested after clashes with gamekeepers.WHO PAYS FOR THEM?We do, to the tune of pounds 40m, through our taxes and contributions to the European Union, which in turn awards grants Most of the land is privately owned. We take them for granted now, but their origins lie in radical social activism. All are accessible by road and rail.WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO DO WITH YOGI BEAR?Strangely enough, Yellowstone, created in Wyoming in 1872 and the home of Yogi Bear, was the model on which Britain's national parks were based. Some of them are a surprisingly short drive from our major cities, too. An amazing one third of the population of England lives less than an hour from the Peak District national park, wedged between the industrial centres of Manchester and Sheffield.

The North York Moors park therefore juts into Cumbria, and the Peak District covers parts of six counties. Their boundaries are defined not by counties but by the various qualities of their landscapes. The national parks, which this year celebrate the 50th birthday of the legislation that created them, cover seven per cent of England and Wales. They contain not just our wildest and most precious landscapes, but also villages, towns and historic sites, manufacturing industries as well as farmland. WHERE ARE THE NATIONAL PARKS?Northumbria, the Lake District, the North York Moors, the Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District, Snowdonia, the Pembrokeshire Coast, the Brecon Beacons, the Norfolk Broads, Exmoor and Dartmoor is the short answer. ARE YOU ONE OF THE 50 PER CENT OF BRITONS WHO CANNOT NAME A SINGLE NATIONAL PARK? Even if you are, you've probably been inside one without realising it. On 11 September 1986 at Sotheby's, a case of the 1982 vintage achieved a record price for a modern wine of pounds 30,800.

English Master of Wine, Fiona Morrison, was so keen on Le Pin she married the Chateau's Belgian owner, Jacques Thienpont.. Its rarity value, enhanced by the enthusiasm of the influential American wine critic Robert Parker in his Wine Advocate, has turned Le Pin into the ultimate cult wine. In order to expand its premium wine production, Gallo recently bulldozed 2,000 hectares of Sonoma Valley and built a winery whose barrel-ageing shed has a full-size football pitch on top of it.Best red: 1995 Frei Ranch Zinfandel, a robust, spicy California red, available at Majestic Wine Warehouses.Most exclusive: Chateau Le Pin is a tiny property of less than two hectares in the Pomerol appellation of Bordeaux. In recent times it has reached a new peak of quality which - almost - justifies the prices.